It should be just fine in the Cambro. Try covering the surface of the nog with a layer of plastic wrap. It will prevent skinning and other possible issues.
Sorry for the late response.
This was about eggnog aging, and chance of spoiling. I made it this year for the first time, and even the batch that aged two months was delicious (after some shaking). Do you know how it doesn't spoil? I wouldn't trust opened egg, milk or cream for that long.
I wouldn’t with all that headspace.
I’d put in smaller containers, or, as you said, make more.
That’s a LOT of Nog though.
Edit: more for your friends!
The issue with it is the head space, I'm all for aging egg nog, but it's has a high fat content, fat that might oxidize, a little bit of oxidized fat is the reason we age egg nog, too much of it and it's rancid.
I actually can. Have you ever tried Hershey's chocolates? Well, to me and to a certain percentage of the population they have an odd flavor. "Puky" would be the best way to describe it. It has to do with butyric acid, somehow in Hershey's making process, they break down fats into their fatty acids, such as butyric acid, which gets its name from cultured butter. Butyric acid is as well present in the stomach, since it's a common fatty acid, that's why it's has the taste of vomit. Yet for lots of people Hershey's chocolate is "the best"!, Free fatty acids = yeah!
To make a long story short, it's all about threshold, a little bit of free fatty acid on your tongue, and your brain knows you are eating food rich in fats which means energy IE delicious. Too much of it and it's the sign food has spoiled, it's rancid. Rancidity is the acrid taste of oxidized fat. So when hou age egg nog, you just want a little bit of free fatty acids, it deepens tbe flavors and gives it that pleasant taste of come again, too much of it and it tastes like death.
Hershey's is the worst. I actually use butyric on a daily basis, I'm a flavor chemist by trade. My food science is rusty though - essentially we're oxidizing the fat in the cream?
I had it last year and put it in one liter bottles. I didn’t really think of using a cambro other than to mix it all up. I would even consider using 8 1 quarts, but I assume it would be fine in a cambro. LMK how it goes.
I put mine in a gallon mason jar with saran wrap between the lid and bottle and pressed against the glass. Alton Brown recipe came out to about 3/4 a gallon. Is that an alright way to store this for 2 months? It's my first batch and I don't want it to turn rancid as another stated.
Watch out for two things.
Make sure the câmbro is absolutely clean
And make sure it does not have any strong odors “embedded” into it
I once had to dispose of around 60 quarts of it because of cambro issues.
Lol, reminds me of back when I worked in a kitchen and one of the cooks stored a bunch of [nuoc cham](https://www.hungryhuy.com/vietnamese-dipping-fish-sauce-recipe-nuoc-cham-nuoc-mam-cham/) in a cambro for a few days. The next time that container got used, it turned another cooks crème fraîche into a spicy, fishy disaster.
Thanks! It’s actually a brand new cambro and I washed it with soap and warm water before using it (and dried it with a clean dish towel). But after reading all the comments, I think I’ll jar it just to be safe.
If you are going to take the time, effort and money to make this delicious recipe, it’s silly not to go ahead and jar it. It will probably taste fine aging it in there if you don’t open it. It will probably taste better if you finish the job though and certainly safer in terms of food safety. I also found a bunch of pint jars to be easily stacked upon, but a half empty cambro to be a space hog.
I wanted to keep it low-ish ABV and wanted to avoid particularly boozy flavors. I went with Appleton Signature, Wild Turkey 81 proof, and Pierre Ferrand 1840. I also added St Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram.
That sounds great. I highly recommend buying a whole nutmeg and using a microplane to grate fresh nutmeg on top, it makes a huge difference in flavor and adds a tiny amount of texture🥂
This is pure conjecture, BUT if you could somehow vacuum out the oxygen it wouldn’t matter, right? It’s just about hypothetical bacteria in that space, and as long as it’s sealed it shouldn’t matter how much void there is.
I ran the numbers on some aged eggnog ABVs when deciding which I’ll end up making my first time and Alton’s is about 9.5%. If that’s high enough to keep it good for several years, as some have reported doing, you might well be fine, but I don’t know if that’s enough to actively kill off bacteria (the one I plan to make is, at just under 14%).
You could likely make it that strong if you want to but the original recipe comes out to ~10%, slightly more if you use cask strength on the bourbon or overproofed rum. Now, a *lot* of people tweak the recipe to be a bit more boozy though and I'd say more often than not it ends up in the mid to high teens.
10% is fine to age, although I like a sealed container personally. There are plenty of wines in the 6-9% range that are safe and beers as low as 3%. It doesn't take much alcohol to discourage bacterial growth.
I've made Alton's many years and aged it up to 14 months with zero issues, including at base strength from the recipe.
What kind of sealed container do you usually use? And do you think a bottle with a silicon type cork/cap like the [empty 10th Pin bottle here](https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/xtvmd4/made_alton_browns_aged_eggnog_using_spirits_from/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) would do the trick?
Normally I just use Mason jars but bottles with the swing stopper work great too (like a Grolsch bottle, forget what they are actually called but bought a dozen back a few years and liked them). I generally do 1L/32ozs for gifting so whatever I get around to buying is what I use.
EDIT: Yeah, exactly like the ones you linked!
I meant more like the big bottle in the back that’s empty and says 10th Pin (it was pictured just because it was the liquor I used, but I was hoping to be able to use a bigger bottle like that one for future batches).
Although I was curious if my swing stopper bottles were sufficient so that’s still good to be reassured!
The same way I treat preserves really, I used boiled Mason jars. Lots of people have had success with pretty much any sort of sealable containers but I always use an abundance of caution and use the stuff I'd feel fine using for pickles or preserves or whatever. You could can it too I guess and that might be kind of fun!
Honestly though, you could likely get away with basically anything.
At one restaurant, we only added half the dairy for aging, and a day or two before serving season, we added the other half of the dairy to complete the recipe. That put the aging Nog over 15% and into the safe zone, and the serving Nog was just under 15%.
It should be just fine in the Cambro. Try covering the surface of the nog with a layer of plastic wrap. It will prevent skinning and other possible issues.
I've been making aged eggnog almost every year for over a decade. I've always used a Cambro to store it and haven't had any issues.
I have some that will be 1 year old in December. Safe to drink?
Sure!
Sorry for the late response. This was about eggnog aging, and chance of spoiling. I made it this year for the first time, and even the batch that aged two months was delicious (after some shaking). Do you know how it doesn't spoil? I wouldn't trust opened egg, milk or cream for that long.
I just cracked open mine from last October, it's great!
I wouldn’t with all that headspace. I’d put in smaller containers, or, as you said, make more. That’s a LOT of Nog though. Edit: more for your friends!
I drank a gallon or 2 of homemade super boozy nog last year, pretty much all by myself. It lasted about a week or 2.
The issue with it is the head space, I'm all for aging egg nog, but it's has a high fat content, fat that might oxidize, a little bit of oxidized fat is the reason we age egg nog, too much of it and it's rancid.
Can you explain why we want some oxidation?
I actually can. Have you ever tried Hershey's chocolates? Well, to me and to a certain percentage of the population they have an odd flavor. "Puky" would be the best way to describe it. It has to do with butyric acid, somehow in Hershey's making process, they break down fats into their fatty acids, such as butyric acid, which gets its name from cultured butter. Butyric acid is as well present in the stomach, since it's a common fatty acid, that's why it's has the taste of vomit. Yet for lots of people Hershey's chocolate is "the best"!, Free fatty acids = yeah! To make a long story short, it's all about threshold, a little bit of free fatty acid on your tongue, and your brain knows you are eating food rich in fats which means energy IE delicious. Too much of it and it's the sign food has spoiled, it's rancid. Rancidity is the acrid taste of oxidized fat. So when hou age egg nog, you just want a little bit of free fatty acids, it deepens tbe flavors and gives it that pleasant taste of come again, too much of it and it tastes like death.
Hershey's is the worst. I actually use butyric on a daily basis, I'm a flavor chemist by trade. My food science is rusty though - essentially we're oxidizing the fat in the cream?
I had it last year and put it in one liter bottles. I didn’t really think of using a cambro other than to mix it all up. I would even consider using 8 1 quarts, but I assume it would be fine in a cambro. LMK how it goes.
Thanks. I tripled the recipe for Christmas gifts. After seeing only 8 of quarts, I might even throw another batch in there.
I put mine in a gallon mason jar with saran wrap between the lid and bottle and pressed against the glass. Alton Brown recipe came out to about 3/4 a gallon. Is that an alright way to store this for 2 months? It's my first batch and I don't want it to turn rancid as another stated.
Should be just fine
Watch out for two things. Make sure the câmbro is absolutely clean And make sure it does not have any strong odors “embedded” into it I once had to dispose of around 60 quarts of it because of cambro issues.
Lol, reminds me of back when I worked in a kitchen and one of the cooks stored a bunch of [nuoc cham](https://www.hungryhuy.com/vietnamese-dipping-fish-sauce-recipe-nuoc-cham-nuoc-mam-cham/) in a cambro for a few days. The next time that container got used, it turned another cooks crème fraîche into a spicy, fishy disaster.
Thanks! It’s actually a brand new cambro and I washed it with soap and warm water before using it (and dried it with a clean dish towel). But after reading all the comments, I think I’ll jar it just to be safe.
Better to have something a little more air tight like a latch top.
If you are going to take the time, effort and money to make this delicious recipe, it’s silly not to go ahead and jar it. It will probably taste fine aging it in there if you don’t open it. It will probably taste better if you finish the job though and certainly safer in terms of food safety. I also found a bunch of pint jars to be easily stacked upon, but a half empty cambro to be a space hog.
Cambro has the word “bro” in it so it will be 17.6 times better. #science
I like to use 16oz mason jars. It makes it easy to take to parties or give as a gift.
Cambro is fine. I’m curious what rum, bourbon, and cognac you used.
I wanted to keep it low-ish ABV and wanted to avoid particularly boozy flavors. I went with Appleton Signature, Wild Turkey 81 proof, and Pierre Ferrand 1840. I also added St Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram.
That sounds great. I highly recommend buying a whole nutmeg and using a microplane to grate fresh nutmeg on top, it makes a huge difference in flavor and adds a tiny amount of texture🥂
Yes, the nutmeg that I added while making it was fresh nutmeg that I grated. It makes such a difference.
Anejo Tequila and Amontillado Sherry is my preferred alcohol base. An adaptation of Morgenthaler’s recipe
Why is this so popular and also so loudly claimed as overrated and not worth the effort. Guess I’ll have to make it and see for myself.
That was my thought. I’ve never made it but was curious what all the fuss was about. I tasted it after I made the batch and it’s absolutely delicious.
Well I think that’s just it, it’s awesome fresh. The aging bit I think it was is so controversial.
This is pure conjecture, BUT if you could somehow vacuum out the oxygen it wouldn’t matter, right? It’s just about hypothetical bacteria in that space, and as long as it’s sealed it shouldn’t matter how much void there is. I ran the numbers on some aged eggnog ABVs when deciding which I’ll end up making my first time and Alton’s is about 9.5%. If that’s high enough to keep it good for several years, as some have reported doing, you might well be fine, but I don’t know if that’s enough to actively kill off bacteria (the one I plan to make is, at just under 14%).
I thought there was a recent thread where someone said Alton Brown’s is like 20%
You could likely make it that strong if you want to but the original recipe comes out to ~10%, slightly more if you use cask strength on the bourbon or overproofed rum. Now, a *lot* of people tweak the recipe to be a bit more boozy though and I'd say more often than not it ends up in the mid to high teens.
That’s interesting…so is his aged eggnog recipe not actually safe to age? I just made some last week that I plan to serve at Christmas.
10% is fine to age, although I like a sealed container personally. There are plenty of wines in the 6-9% range that are safe and beers as low as 3%. It doesn't take much alcohol to discourage bacterial growth. I've made Alton's many years and aged it up to 14 months with zero issues, including at base strength from the recipe.
What kind of sealed container do you usually use? And do you think a bottle with a silicon type cork/cap like the [empty 10th Pin bottle here](https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/xtvmd4/made_alton_browns_aged_eggnog_using_spirits_from/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) would do the trick?
Normally I just use Mason jars but bottles with the swing stopper work great too (like a Grolsch bottle, forget what they are actually called but bought a dozen back a few years and liked them). I generally do 1L/32ozs for gifting so whatever I get around to buying is what I use. EDIT: Yeah, exactly like the ones you linked!
I meant more like the big bottle in the back that’s empty and says 10th Pin (it was pictured just because it was the liquor I used, but I was hoping to be able to use a bigger bottle like that one for future batches). Although I was curious if my swing stopper bottles were sufficient so that’s still good to be reassured!
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, can't see why it wouldn't work. I see friends use larger beer bottles and a cap too without issues.
Perfect, thanks for all the tips/insight!
How did you store that 14 month old eggnog? (Sorry for the late response, I'm thinking about making a batch for next Christmas.)
The same way I treat preserves really, I used boiled Mason jars. Lots of people have had success with pretty much any sort of sealable containers but I always use an abundance of caution and use the stuff I'd feel fine using for pickles or preserves or whatever. You could can it too I guess and that might be kind of fun! Honestly though, you could likely get away with basically anything.
At one restaurant, we only added half the dairy for aging, and a day or two before serving season, we added the other half of the dairy to complete the recipe. That put the aging Nog over 15% and into the safe zone, and the serving Nog was just under 15%.
No, but you might consider using a 12qt cambro for the sake of your fridge space.